Hell on Wheels: "Bread and Circuses"Review

Any viewer of the last few weeks could sense some racial tension brewing between Elam (Common) and well … anybody. Why it happened between him and Bohannan is a mystery to me since Bohannan is the only real sensible character in this show, but Bohannan pushed his buttons and they challenged each other and next thing you know, Durant announced they'd fight in the camp under one of the big tents.

Umm. OK?

I was hoping there'd be more of a point to this. There was some character development, both in how and why they fought, for each of them, but I thought they were supposed to get along; see eye-to-eye. That was the joy of their relationship. Pushing them into a fight seemed forced and more like an excuse to show off their physique.

Alas. We watched them fight. The direction was awfully good, I'll say that. The fight itself looked a lot like the one from Rocky IV: lots of haymakers landing, nobody putting up their hands to protect themselves. There were some moments when it looked like they studied fighting technique of this time, with pushing and shoving and headlocks and, well … basically fighting from guys who didn't know how to fight. The entire episode was about their fight, though, and so it undercut the main story arc of the season (whatever that is or will be).

There were some interesting slice of life moments. The Swede allowed the black workers to enter the tent to watch the fight if there was no commotion (or else they'll be chained). One of the two Irish brothers gave Elam's trainer a few Mexican peppers to put on Elam's "gloves," and thus blinded Bohannan during the fight. Elam won because of it. Bohannan ended up licking his wounds with a bucket of water provided by Lily and had a good laugh when he realized the pepper trick. He's no bad sport, even in the face of cheating.

Again, the characters were there. Elam didn't cheat, but the Irishman did out of desperation. Bohannan was a stronger fighter, though Elam held his ground and used his rage productively—er, maybe that's not the right word for it.

Lily meanwhile was a silent force in this episode. She saw through Durant's plan: distract the citizens with food and a circus and they won't care about paychecks for the moment. She even cited ancient Romans as doing this. Love it. She then revealed she had the maps all along and will give them to Durant if he pays what her husband was owed.

The relationships in the series are coming together. I would've liked to see Elam and Bohannan work something out other than a fight, but that's how it worked out. And it wasn't the worst the series has done.

The side of this episode I don't want to talk about is with the Cheyenne tribe. I've studied history of the civil war and reconstruction. I don't recall any depictions of the Cheyenne wearing these kinds of clothes. They seem to talk in a stunted English language. From what I remember, Native American leaders in this period didn't dress how these men dressed and they spoke and wrote English pretty well.

In this episode was Wes Studi, the man who played Magua in Last of the Mohicans (and owned). Magua, however, had a pretty clear mission: the English aren't to be trusted because they've murdered my family. The Cheyenne tribe's mission to destroy the railroad in this series is a lot less clear. So far, there's been one attack on civilians launched by Native Americans and no attacks launched on the Native Americans by eastern whites moving west. I'm not seeing the kind of perspective that would explain what the white people have done to make the Cheyenne want to kill unarmed people. (Which is a little ironic since the Union soldiers were the ones who usually committed the war crimes and killed civilian Native Americans).

The line between racist depiction and historical depiction can be thin in these situations, but since the series has done its due diligence on a variety of subjects, I'll give the creators the benefit of the doubt. Looking forward to more.

This aside, "Bread and Circuses" was a passable episode. It helped establish more character base and had some beautiful shots in there too. Hell on Wheels still seems to lack a full-season story, but there'll be more episodes to wrap that up. The characters are there and that'll matter more over a full series.